


Ribbon Candy

by ChappytheBunny



Category: Ensemble Stars
Genre: Books, Curiosity, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 23:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChappytheBunny/pseuds/ChappytheBunny
Summary: But only he would remember it. Because Mika would never ask.





	Ribbon Candy

\- - - - - -

When he reads books, Mika noticed that he had a funny habit of dog-earring the pages. He didn’t do this to keep track of what page he was on; no, that would have been silly. That’s what his bookmark was for. It became evident to Mika that Shu’s reason for folding back the thin pages of his books was for his own, personal record. When he liked something that he had read on a certain page, he would make a sort of sound, usually a kind of “_humpff_,” and would nod to himself, take his index and his thumb to the corner, and fold back a crease in the page.

Mika always wanted to ask him why he didn’t just highlight the parts that he liked, or underline them with one of his fabric pencils. But he never mustered up the courage to ask, leaving the truth up for speculation. He’d always thought that maybe it was because Shu wanted to leave the parts he found interesting a mystery to unknowing readers, readers who may have delved into his library—which, in reality, was three bookshelves filled to their bosomed brims, situated in the corner of the main room in his apartment. 

But then again, this was only Mika’s interpretation. He would never know the answer unless he asked.

Sometimes, when Mika was feeling particularly (or as Shu sometimes put it “_peculiarly_”) bored, he would ask Shu for his permission to look through some of the books in his library. It wasn’t often that Mika asked this of Shu, so whenever he did, he was always given a rather inquisitive expression at first. However, it wouldn’t be long afterward that Shu would resign all possession that he had over his prized books and would allow Mika the opportunity to look at them. 

This had always been an instantaneous cure to Mika’s sudden onset of sever boredom.

He would plop himself down in front of the bookshelves, filing his fingers over the bindings. He would pluck one out, inspect the pages, and then put it back. He repeated this process a couple of times over, until he found a book whose pages resembled that of the cheap ribbon candy that he’d often buy for himself at the convenience store. The more creases in the pages, the better. They could have only meant one thing: this was a book that Shu must have particularly loved.

Taking the book into his hands, he would often flip to the first fold he could find and start reading from the very beginning of _that_ page. It was like a game to him. Suddenly, he was a detective, a scavenger who searched through the sentences, the paragraphs, trying to uncover what it was about the page, _this_ page, that Shu had enjoyed so dearly that he wanted to remember it forever. 

But only _he_ would remember it. Because Mika would never ask.

He would never ask, because he was hopeful, helplessly hopeful that when his eyes stopped at a sentence that struck a chord within his heartstrings, Mika was hopeful that _that_ had been the very same sentence that caused Shu to put a permanent crease in that page, precisely.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a fanfic.
> 
> Haha! Hello! I’m Chappy and I’m just a goof who left life get away from her—but I really would like to start getting back into writing! This is just a little something that I drafted in 2017, spruced up in 2018, and am finally posting in 2019!
> 
> I hope y’all liked it! :)
> 
> \- Chappy


End file.
